Arrival of Manchester City could help to awaken Mourinho’s Madrid from their slumber

PERHAPS Real Madrid starting like eight-stone weaklings is just part of Jose Mourinho’s grand scheme of things.

Cristiano Ronaldo has won the Champions League before and signs suggest another victory []

On the last two occasions that Real Madrid won the Champions League, 2000 and 2002, they finished the domestic season fifth and third respectively, so the omens so far, just ahead of the visit of England’s champions, are perfect – Los Blancos languish in 11th position.

But the truth is that anyone in Spain who now tries to peddle the idea that this was in any way predictable, after Mourinho’s Madrid stormed like 11 white-shirted terminators to win La Liga last season, is deluded.

As he usually did with Chelsea at their best, the Special One took his squad over to Los Angeles, housed them in five-star luxury, installed the best pitch in order to make training injury free and healthy for fitness training with the ball – and everything went swimmingly.

But they have come back to Spain and, for the most part, looked uninterested.

Sergio Ramos and Gonzalo Higuain yearn to win this cup with the big ears

A pallid home draw with Valencia, a smash-and-grab away defeat by Getafe – having been 1-0 up – and a pretty serious chasing at Sevilla on Saturday night, amount to four measly points – eight behind league leaders Barcelona.

But, knowing Mourinho, it is the matches against Barca in the Spanish Supercup which should give Roberto Mancini pause for thought.

Two games, eight goals and 180 helter-skelter minutes gave Madrid the trophy by dint of having scored more at the Nou Camp than the Catalans managed at the Bernabeu.

After the caning he gave his players on Saturday night – and it was a verbal lashing – when he bustled into the press conference much more quickly than usual and sprayed insults to his players more rapidly than Luka Modric can dispense killer passes, City would do well to expect a reaction.

“I’d like to have changed seven of my players at half-time”…“There are very few of my players who have their heads focused on football as the most important thing to them right now” and “The most worrying thing for me at the moment is that I don’t have a team” were some pearls he dispensed before an audience he has often thought of as swine.

"It is the old stick-and-carrot routine – thrash them hard and hope that the players chase the vitamin C on the end of a stick – ie the glory of thrilling a capacity crowd in the glorious Santiago Bernabeu by dismantling the English champions.

But two factors should worry president Florentino Perez and the Madrid season ticket holders. Firstly, this is the second time this season that the Portuguese has resorted to a verbal assault in an attempt to catalyse his players from their lethargy.

The first time, after slumping to a “zero-performance” defeat at Getafe, Mourinho called and was answered. Madrid beat Barcelona 2-1 to win the Supercup and, by half-time, they would not have been flattered if the score had been 5-1.

But that was barely a couple of weeks ago and he is inflicting scars on their hides once again.

Could he be met with the law of diminishing returns?

Secondly – and more seriously – is the impression that some of the Spanish players, having buckled down to work under his heavy harness last season, are now beginning to show their independence.

Sergio Ramos has been caught, more than once, in training enquiring why, in his view, it is always the Spanish players rather than the Portuguese speakers who are singled out for public criticism.

There has never been much doubt that, perhaps like most dressing rooms, there are some in Mourinho’s elite squad who feel more and some who feel less disposed towards his methods.

Whether he has ‘burned them out’ just yet seems to me to be an unlikely proposition and this, after all, is a competition which calls to his men in white.

Iker Casillas was a kid when he won it first, 12 years ago. Xabi Alonso was part architect of that extraordinary fightback in Istanbul when Liverpool had apparently been put to bed by Milan’s 3-0 first-half performance.

Cristiano Ronaldo has won it once and lost a final but, given that individual prizes are the personal fiefdom of Lionel Messi at the moment, a team trophy becomes much more important to him once again.

Sergio Ramos and Gonzalo Higuain yearn to win this cup with the big ears – and presumably Modric signed up for the crusade for similar reasons.

So, Madrid are vulnerable at set-plays; they lack legs for an intense 90 minutes; but they are more – much more – than they have shown domestically and City should be very wary indeed.

Mourinho’s Madrid are a dangerous beast and the tiger is only snoozing, not unconscious.